The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-03
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The color OF the sun, If seen outside
the earth's atmosphere, Is believed by
Prof. Langley to be of blush tinge-'
or, as he describes it, a lavender with
perhaps suggestion of purple.
Pure water flows for certain depth
near the surface of every river TINT drains
the wide region of country, though a
stratum, of fluid that is equivalent to
sewage moves sluggishly along near the
bottom-thcse two rivers scarcely ming
ling in ordinary years.
Musical composers are indebted to sci
ence for two new instruments. The mel
ograph-lately described-is designed
accurately to record the notes Of any
tune played upon piano; and the melo-
trope has just been devised in France to
faithfully reproduce upon any piano the
pieces automatically copied by the first
apparatus.
An interesting series Of experiments
has been made by DR.. j. W. Fraser on
the influence of common beverages On
digestion. Among these drinks he finds
that water is usually the best. Of infus-
ions, tea or cocoa is the best for use with
mea tor eggs. Eggs are the best animal
food with infused beverages, and should
be soft boiled with coffee or cocoa.
Starting on Dr. Dawsons assertion
that one foot of coal represents fifty
generations of coal plants, and that each
generation took ten years to mature-a
very moderate assumption-and taking
the actually measured thickness of the
coal measures in some localities at IL, 600
feet, Prof. Huxley calculates that the
time represented by the coal formation
alone would be 100000 years-suffi-
cient to show that when we come to deal
with geological time the unit of measure
mcnt is 1000, 900 years.
That odor is, like light and sound, a
phenomenon of undulation is the belief
N. P. Leclerc. He urges that it is more
reasonable to suppose that the odors pro-
duccd by rubbing certain substances
like sulphur-are due to the waves set
up than that the rubbing causes
matter to be emitted which cannot be
detected except as smell. The garlic
odor of heated arsenious acid is smell
accompanying chemical action the same
as in many other cases we have light OF
heat in connection with it. With some
what imperfect apparatus Leclerc claims
to have produced interference of odors
analogous with the interference phe-
nomena Of light.
The prehistoric development OF
Northern Europe is considered in work
by the late J. j. A. Worsaae, an eminent
Danish archeologist, under the follow
ing phrases, the approximate chronology
assigned being as stated: l. The early
Stone Age, at least 5000 B. c., when
portions only of Southern Scandinavia
seem to have been inhabited. 2. The
later Stone Age, about 1000 to 1000 B.
c., contemporaneous with the Bronze
AGE on the shores of the Mediterranean.
8. The early Bronze Age, about 1000 to
500 B. c., when Stone Age existed to
the north, and an Iron Age had already
come in to the south. 4. The late
Bronze Age, about 500 B. c., to the time
of Christ's birth, when a pre-Roman Age
of Iron was developed in Central and
Western Europe. 5. The early Iron
Age, from A. D. to 450, when bronco
was still in use in parts of the Scandin-
avian peninsula. 6. The middle Age
of Iron, about A. D. 450 to 7O6, when
foreign Romano German influence pre-
dominated. Z. The later Iron Age, or
Viking Period, about A. D. 700 to 1000,
when Stone Age still fingered in the
extreme north of Finland and Lapland.